Golden Days: Sound Blaster Pro Edition

A resourcepack that converts Golden Days' Beta-style sound design into an authentic MS-DOS Sound Blaster experience.

Why This Exists

Golden Days recaptures the charm of Minecraft Beta times - both visually and sonically. But why not deepen this nostalgia? This pack applies a Sound Blaster Pro-style quality reduction and noise addition process to the already classic sound effects of Golden Days, offering the characteristic warm hum of early 90s PC audio. If you yearn for the metallic, "crunchy" timbre of DOS-era games - this is for you.

Technical Features

Unlike our previous project focused on ambient sounds, here we're processing sound effects. The essence is the same - Sound Blaster Pro-style 8-bit audio - but with key differences in the processing chain:

22.05 kHz Sampling Rate

• Matches the hardware limitations of Sound Blaster Pro for games (half the 44.1 kHz CD standard).
• Reduces high-frequency aliasing, just like the original analog low-pass filter in the DAC.

8-Bit Depth + TPDF Dithering

• SB Pro used 8-bit DACs for digital audio (e.g., VOC files).
• Dithering: TPDF with Shibata noise shaping mimics the card's analog noise floor, avoiding "digital grit" while preserving dynamics.

Brown Noise Layer

• Adds a louder brown noise track at -45dB (instead of -50dB) specifically for sound effects, to emulate:
• SB Pro's analog output stage.
• CRT monitor interference (iconic element of DOS gaming era).

Low-Pass Filter @ 7000 Hz

• Slightly lower cutoff frequency compared to the ambient filter (7500 Hz), more aggressive suppression of high frequencies.
• Closer to how many early DOS games handled sound effect channels for that distinctive crunchy feel.

Overdrive + Gain Reduction

• Overdrive 4: Stronger distortion than in the atmospheric version, conveying the "bite" of SB Pro's operational amplifiers in sound effects.
• Gain -1: Prevents clipping after dithering and noise injection, preserving dynamic range.

Rain Exception

• Rain remains atmospheric in nature, so it uses the original processing chain from our previous project (-50dB noise, 7500 Hz lowpass, overdrive 2). This maintains that subtle atmospheric quality consistent with the older approach.

Authenticity Notes

• Tested against recordings of Duke Nukem 3D (SB Pro) and SB emulation in DOSBox-Staging.
• The processing chain mirrors how games like Doom mixed PCM audio.

Limitation: Always Binaural Audio in Minecraft

Minecraft always uses binaural mixing to position sounds in 3D space. Although there's an HRTF toggle, it doesn't actually disable the underlying binaural engine - only the specific HRTF algorithm. This means that any noise embedded in a sound effect is perceived as coming from that sound's in-world location, rather than being a constant, global "floor" like on real Sound Blaster hardware.

Currently, there's no known way to completely remove binaural processing without forcing the entire system into mono output, which would be historically inaccurate (since Sound Blaster cards did support stereo).

Compatibility

• Designed for version 1.11.0 of Golden Days (other versions not tested!).

Credits

• PoeticRainbow for creating the original Golden Days.
• This add-on is not managed by PoeticRainbow and is not affiliated with the Golden Days team.
• Tools: sox for audio processing, find/bash for batch processing.
• Inspiration: VOGONS community, SBEMU, and tests on actual SB16 hardware.

"It's not a bug - it's a feature (from 1992)."